When last we left the mayor, Queen Thompson, she was stranded in a sinkhole, seeking help from her midtown Harrisburg neighbor, Gov. Tom Corbett, who was otherwise occupied trying to interest Chinese businessmen into buying the city, lock, stock and barrel.

(Those who called that statement politically incorrect when they read Act 1 should Google “Chinese investment in U.S.”)

Unfortunately for the Queen, none of the city’s 34 remaining employees was in a hurry to offer a hand, probably fearing she would bite it off.

Nancy Eshelman

Fortunately for the Queen, she had, if you remember from Act 1, fallen into the sinkhole with City Controller Dan Miller, who holds the city’s purse strings while he plots to unseat her.

Miller was quickly rescued by a cadre of supporters who, after debating the issue through most of the next day, determined they couldn’t just let the Queen remain in the sinkhole. After all, they realized, keeping Second Street closed would seriously snarl the mad rush of commuters escaping the city and hurt the owners along Restaurant Row (about the only place making money in the city).

In case you spent the week in a coma as a result of inhaling too much vinegar while dying Easter eggs, here’s what happened: The Queen has a genetic flaw that causes her to repeatedly stick her foot in her mouth. So, during the 956th press conference about, ho-hum, the incinerator, she blamed “some scumbag from Perry County” for trying to get free waste removal by dumping his trash in the city.

That’s like saying the National Debt exists because one citizen in Montana neglected to pay his income tax.

The reaction was swift. The people of Perry County demonstrated a fury similar to Parisians when they heard Marie Antoinette had said, “Let them eat cake.”

They didn’t ask for Queen Thompson’s head – at least not publicly. Instead they did what every red-blooded American does when attacked: They took to their social media to demand reparations from the Queen, who initially chose, for once, to keep her mouth shut.

Instead she issued (or one of her minions issued) a statement that said, "The mayor's reference specifically to illegal dumpers from Perry County has been distorted out of content.” (Yes, she’s the only one who missed that typo.)

“Obviously the mayor was not referring to the citizens of Perry County. Many of the city's workers, visitors and friends come from Perry County into the city every day, and the city has a long, positive relationship with the county. The mayor apologizes to the good citizens of Perry County for any negative connotation implied in her comments on fighting blight in the City."

It did little or nothing to appease her neighbors to the north since it didn’t come out of her mouth and wasn’t written in first person.

Standing with the Perry countians were a few pick-up truckloads of elected officials who sensed a photo op.

Late Thursday she sent Perry County Commissioners the full video of the question and answer session during which she used the s-word. It would prove that the media is out to get her this election season, she said.

Behind the scenes, the candidates opposing the Queen snickered. They had learned a valuable lesson: Hand her a microphone and leave her to her own devices. She will sink again -- on her own.

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